


Run

by white_crayon



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Diabetes incoming, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 04:46:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12809922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/white_crayon/pseuds/white_crayon
Summary: A song-fic inspired by Daughter's "Run," which I listened to on repeat while writing. I highly recommend listening to it while reading.Rick does some thinking late at night, which leads to some drastic changes.





	Run

/Don’t know where he’s going; Don’t know where he’s been; But he is restless at night; ‘Cause he has horrible dreams./  
Morty had always had nightmares. As long as Rick could remember knowing him, and according to Beth, even longer than that. Even now, at sixteen, the kid was still succumbing to his bad dreams when he fell asleep. Rick knew this because of the time he spent in the boy’s bed, unbeknownst to the rest of the family.  
Rick was snapped out of his doze by a soft kick to his shin. He looked over at Morty, seeing his face scrunched up in an expression of worry. He sighed, sitting up a little. Ever since they’d started their little...rendezvous, Morty’s dreams had become more frequent and a lot more intense. Sometimes he could hear him crying from his room downstairs. Rick assumed that it was due to his fear of getting caught by their family, but he was a genius, so of course his brain went a little off the rails try and come up with reasons why this precious boy was having such terrible dreams. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was partially because of him; maybe the adventures were getting a little too much for the kid.  
Another kick as Morty began to thrash around. His lips moved, and as his voice grew louder and more panicked, Rick could make out what he was saying.  
“No...don’t take him...please, I’ll do...I’ll...anything...no...no!”  
Rick’s heart throbbed at the sound of Morty’s pleas to an unseen authority. He placed his hand on his companions shoulders, holding him down so he wouldn’t thrash as much.  
“Morty,” he said, loud enough that he could be heard by Morty but nobody else. “Wake up, baby boy. You’re having a nightmare. I’m here, G-Grandpa’s here. Grandpa’s here, b-b-baby boy.”  
Morty seemed to settle at the calming words, his face relaxing and lips parting as he let out a soft breath. His body stopped shaking and he stopped trying to subconsciously throw Rick off of him, settling back down into the mattress and muttering something incoherent.  
His eyes opened a few moments later, staring at Rick through the darkness of the room. Even in the dim lighting, they seemed to pierce through him, staring straight into his soul and laying all of his feelings bare. The thought made Rick’s chest tighten; there were so many things he hadn’t told Morty, things that the kid would be angry to have kept from him.  
“Nightmare?” he asked, his voice a whisper in the now silence of the room.  
Morty nodded. He shifted closer to Rick, and the old man instinctively wrapped his arms around his waist to keep him close. The gesture seemed to calm Morty further, and he even gave a small smile. The sight of it made Rick’s heart skip a beat, and he cursed himself silently at how this kid made him feel.

/So we lay in the dark; We’ve got nothing to say; Just the beating of hearts like two drums in the grey./  
There really was nothing that either of them could say in that moment. What was Rick supposed to say in a situation like this, anyways? ‘Hey Morty, sorry I’m a sick old man that somehow made you fall in love with me, and sorry that I love you too and make you have nightmares about losing me’? No. From the looks of it, Morty couldn’t think of anything either, as he just nestled closer to Rick and kissed the old man’s chest. Rick’s heart caught at the gesture.

/I don’t know what we’re doing; I don’t know what we’ve done; But the fire is coming.../  
He didn’t know how it could’ve come to this. How did they go from hardly being able to stand each other to Rick in Morty’s bed, the kid in his arms with his head on his chest, hearts beating in unison like some sort of two man marching band? He didn’t know. All he knew was that the damage had been done a long time ago, and there was nothing they could do to go back on it. He had taken Morty’s virginity a few days after the fateful night when Morty had come to his room, drunk from a house party and sobbing about how he loved Rick and wanted to be with him, even though it was gross and he was gross and “/I’m sorry/.” They had been keeping this up for over a year now, the pretending, the games, the secrets. It was tearing both of them apart.  
Perhaps it was because he was a genius, or perhaps it was so simple a fact that anyone could figure it out, even a Morty, but Rick knew that they couldn’t do this forever. Either one of them would slip up, or the family would suddenly get smarter, or maybe a combination of the two. Eventually, this beautiful, disgusting, wonderful disaster they had would fall apart at the hands of their family. What was even worse than that idea was the thought that maybe it wouldn’t be either of those things. Maybe they would just...grow tired. Become bored of each other and sick of all of the lying and just give up.  
Rick didn’t think he could stand that thought.  
There was only one thing to do.

/...so I think we should run./  
“Morty,” he whispered. Those beautiful hazel eyes opened again, and Rick could see the questions in them before Morty even asked. He took Morty’s small, soft hand in his own, calloused and rough from working on machines and gadgets.  
“I think we should run.”

/While I put on my shoes; He will button his coat./  
Rick had wanted to just get up and go, but Morty knew that they would regret it if they didn’t pack necessities. He watched Rick watch him from the bed as he got dressed and slipped his feet into his shoes, pausing only to press a soft kiss to his lips before tiptoeing to the bathroom to grab their toothbrushes. He knew he was being silly, that they could just buy new ones at whatever planet they ended up on, but he needed this. He needed to pack, to give himself a sense of finality that he wouldn’t get unless he physically saw his things disappearing into a suitcase. He grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste, got Rick’s as well, and quickly made his way back to the bedroom.  
Rick was dressed by the time he got back, just pulling on his lab coat. The portal gun was laying on the bed, but they both knew that they wouldn’t be using it to escape. They’d need to take the ship, which required sneaking out to the garage without waking up the rest of the family. 

/And we will step outside; Checking that the coast is clear on both sides; ‘Cause we don’t want to be seen; This is suicide./  
Rick went first, holding Morty’s hand in a loose grip in case he needed to hurriedly let go of it. Morty couldn’t help the thumping of his heart, so loud that he felt it would wake everyone within a mile radius. He gripped Rick’s hand, holding tightly as if it were a lifeline; which, he guessed, it kind of was.  
He followed behind, checking over his shoulder every five seconds to make sure no one had woken up.

/And I won’t tell my mother; It’s better she don’t know; And he won’t tell his folks; ‘Cause they’re already ghosts./  
Morty stopped when they reached the kitchen, hesitating. Rick didn’t noticed until his hand slipped out of his own, and he turned and looked quizzically at Morty. “C’mon, M-M-Morty, we have to, we gotta go.  
“I’m gonna...” Morty gestured to the pad of paper and pen Beth kept on the counter for grocery lists. He started to write his mother a note, but the pen was knocked out of his hand.  
“What the hell, R-Rick?” he hissed as quietly as he could, glaring up at the older man. Rick’s face was stony.  
“No notes, Morty,” he said softly. “They won’t- they can’t- they w-won’t understand, M-Morty.”  
Morty looked up at him pleadingly for a few moments, but then he just sighed and nodded. “Okay, Rick,” he said quietly. He knew his grandfather was right. It would be better if she didn’t know.  
They continued on their way to the garage, and Morty looked up at Rick. His silver hair was slightly ruffled from sleeping and then getting dressed, and the lines in his face were hard and final. Morty couldn’t help but wonder what Rick’s parents would’ve thought of him. He knew, of course, that they wouldn’t approve of their relationship either, but he wondered if they would like him, as a person. A pang of reality hit him when he realized that wouldn’t happen. Rick’s parents were dead. Lots of his friends were dead. This was life for them.

/Will you stay with me, my love; ’Till we’re old and grey?; ‘Cause I don’t want to be alone; When these bones decay./  
He would never get to grow old with Rick. There would be no shared stories about their grandkids by the fire, no visits back home to see everyone. Rick would probably die before Morty was even old enough to legally get married on any planet that would allow it. He wanted, for a brief moment, to stop, to call it off, tell Rick that they could just go back to being normal Rick and Morty, but deep down he knew that he couldn’t. He was in love, completely head over heels for this man, and he knew that he would break if they were to be torn apart by anyone or anything. So he kept walking, quickened his pace, pushing the intruding thoughts out of his mind as best as he could.

/Run, run, run, run./  
They made it out to the garage without anyone seeing them. Rick got in the spaceship, hardly waiting long enough for Morty to climb in the passenger side before he was backing it out of the garage and flipping switches and pushing buttons. Before Morty could buckle his seatbelt, they were lifting off, leaving their old lives behind for good. It felt...good, actually. Morty had been expecting pain, sadness, but there was only a little bit of that. The rest of him felt light, almost floaty, with happiness that they would be starting a new life together. Rick and Morty, for a hundred years.  
Rick and Morty forever.

/Run, run, run, run./  
As the stars and passing planets outside gave light to the ship, Morty looked over at Rick. He was focused on the expanse of space ahead of him, but the corners of his eyes were crinkled, and they sparkled as if he were holding back a huge smile. Morty grinned at that, leaning over to kiss Rick’s cheek, before his eyes grew heavy and he yawned. He felt his head lowering down onto Rick’s shoulder, and he let it, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms loosely around the older man’s waist. His breathing evened out as he fell asleep, for once not plagued by nightmares.

/Run, run, run, run./  
Rick tore his eyes away from the windshield for just a moment to look down at Morty. The boy was sleeping on his shoulder, his arms around his waist as if he were trying to hold him close even in sleep. Rick let himself smile then, leaning down to kiss Morty’s head, his nose brushing his curls. He noticed that Morty’s shirt was inside out, and let out a soft chuckle, before switching on autopilot and leaning back in his sleep.  
The last thing he said before dozing off, his arm around Morty, was, “I love you."

**Author's Note:**

> I love Daughter's music, and have been planning to write this for ages. I hope I did the song justice :)
> 
> Constructive criticism greatly appreciated!


End file.
